The player sparking the most conversations early in Cubs Camp is not in Mesa, Arizona, with the team, or even a member of the organization — yet. But the rumors of the Cubs making a play for free agent Alex Bregman are running rampant.

With two of his former Houston Astros teammates on the roster in Ryan Pressly and Kyle Tucker, Jameson Taillon was asked if he has done any recruiting pitches for the star third baseman.

“I haven’t necessarily — I don’t know about recruiting, but I know those guys speak very highly of him, and I’ve definitely heard them communicate that out loud. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes as far as recruiting. Obviously, he’s an incredible player, and I think, you know, just getting these guys from Houston, that team went on a crazy run for a lot of years.”

Pressly said he is not “recruiting” Bregman either.

“I don’t think it’s recruiting. it’s just more of like, ‘Hey, how you doing, what are you hearing?’ stuff like that. I don’t, ‘Hey, come here, come here.’ Would I like to play with him? One thousand percent. I would love to play with him. But like I said he’s got to make decisions for his family as well.”

Nicky Lopez said having Bregman would help the team.

“Me and Bregman are actually really good friends. We work out in the offseason together, so I’ve been talking to him pretty much every single day about it,” he said. “I don’t know about [recruiting], but it would be sweet to share a locker room with him.”

As the saying goes, money talks. The Cubs are reportedly in the running with the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers for Bregman’s services, and there is a chance he could return to Houston.

The Cubs are said to be offering a shorter deal in the four-year range, but well north of $100 million.

Meanwhile as for Pressly, his heart may still be deep in Texas, but he is locked and loaded on being the Cubs’ new closer. He wrangled for days with his wife, Kat, before finally waiving his no-trade clause late last month after spending seven years in Houston.

“It was a very tough decision to make. Obviously, she’s from Houston. I’m from Dallas, you know, and spent a majority of my career in Houston,” Pressly said. “The opportunity presented itself, and we sat down and had a long conversation, and it was one of those things where it’s like, ‘Let’s go do it.'”

Besides getting back to his preferred job of saving games, Pressly is looking forward to serving as a mentor to young reliever Porter Hodge, who excelled in the closer role down the stretch last season.

“You guys got to see what he could do last year. His stuff is electric,” Pressly said. “You know, we’ve just got to work on getting better every day, that’s what spring training is for, and hopefully I can guide him down a good path.”

“At the end of the day, whatever role I am, I’m going to get the job done, get the three outs. But he’s going to be a good guy to kind of be a mentor to me, ask him a lot of questions regarding the outings, how everything goes,” Hodge said. “Asking a lot of questions is going to be the best thing for me.”

Pressly said he is excited about competing with Hodge in camp. The 36-year-old veteran also called playing at Wrigley Field a special opportunity.

Since he has a dog named Wrigley, it sounds like it was meant to be.

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